Baku, Azerbaijan, August 2
Trend:
Armenia's large-scale provocations against Azerbaijan are the result of leading OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries' attitude towards the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Western University professor, political analyst Fikret Sadikhov told Trend on August 2.
He added that they consider all this as normal and think that Armenia's caprice must be taken into account.
"The truce has been formal for all these years," he said. "This is a reality. The format of the truce was constantly violated by the Armenian side."
"The aggravation of the situation on the contact line is a result of indifferent, aloof attitude of the leading powers towards the conflicts in the South Caucasus, in particular to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, during which one country occupied the territory of another country," he added. "Those holding the leading positions in the world politics and the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen consider this normal."
"We are consistently called for peace talks, good neighborliness, the implementation of joint projects," he said. "It is clear that eventually all this would lead to Armenia's such large-scale provocations."
"Despite the losses suffered by Azerbaijan, according to my information, the Armenian side suffered many more losses," he said. "Some foreign news agencies write about this. The rebuff to the Armenian side is rather significant. The Armenian side had to feel the strength and power of Azerbaijan's modern military equipment and its determination to liberate its territories."
Some 12 Azerbaijani servicemen and some were wounded as a result of the Armenian reconnaissance and sabotage groups' attacks on the positions of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces for the last four days.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the U.S. are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.